Abstract: Forecasting workload activity for data stored on a data storage device includes selecting at least one metric for measuring workload activity, providing at least one grouping of portions of the data according to a workload affinity determination provided for each of the portions at a subset of a plurality of time steps, where the workload affinity determination is based on each of the data portions in the group experiencing above-average workload activity during same ones of the subset of the plurality of time steps, the subset corresponding to at least one business cycle for accessing the data, and forecasting workload activity for all of the portions of data in the group based on forecasting workload activity for a subset of the data portions that is less than all of the data portions.

Abstract: Techniques for grouping data portions are disclosed. Each group includes data portions determined to exhibit similar behavior. The techniques may include determining whether an affinity measurement with respect to two groups exceeds an affinity threshold; merging the two groups into a single group responsive to the affinity measurement exceeding the affinity threshold; modeling movement of at least one data portion of the single group between two storage tiers at a particular time of day using predicted workload metrics; and performing the data movement of the at least one data portion between the two storage tiers. Predicted workload metrics may be determined by revising first modeled workload metrics using a bias value, where bias values are associated with different times of day, and the bias value is selected based on the particular time of day that the predicted workload metrics are modeling.